Vender took 3 months to find a house

[vickyc90]

So it transpires that our vender didn't find a house for 3 months after they accepted our offer and didn't share this information with us.

We are now having to move out of our house next week and the venders searches aren't apparently due back until the end of March.

I know they are mortgage free are we being unreasonable to say take the indemnity insurance (we are willing to pay) and get moving vs wait for the searches.

I feel like a witch forcing the issue but come on 3 months!!

Anyone else been in this situation what did you do? I feel like even waiting for them it will be quicker than offering again but the principle of it is driving me mad

How did you not know they were working on a purchase? What was your solicitor doing, surely they should have been speaking to their solicitor and working on an exchange and completion date. How have you ended up with a moving date but no house to move into? I think your solicitor has a lot to answer for.

Weren't working on a purchase*

In an ideal world you would have to be informed of these things, but unfortunately (assuming you're in England or Wales) there's no compulsion to do so. I think your solicitor has rather failed in their duty if they've not checked what's going on

I assume you're moving out of rented accommodation as otherwise the chain would be broken - has your landlord got a new tenant or could you extend?

@SparkleSpangle

How did you not know they were working on a purchase? What was your solicitor doing, surely they should have been speaking to their solicitor and working on an exchange and completion date. How have you ended up with a moving date but no house to move into? I think your solicitor has a lot to answer for.

Her solicitors haven't been getting back to ours and our buyer has only got a few weeks remaining on their mortgage offer so we have to go or lose our buyer and start again.

I believe everyone thought that she would be moving into rented or family as she hadn't offered on anything. Now it transpires she has offered so wants to wait is what I can make of the mess.

For reference we have had two weeks notice of our buyers completion date 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Echobelly

In an ideal world you would have to be informed of these things, but unfortunately (assuming you're in England or Wales) there's no compulsion to do so. I think your solicitor has rather failed in their duty if they've not checked what's going on

I assume you're moving out of rented accommodation as otherwise the chain would be broken - has your landlord got a new tenant or could you extend?

Nope we own ours, so the chain will break and then we will be chain free buying hers. We will go in with my parents which is fine it's the fact she then wants to wait another 6 weeks for search's and to casually pack

I read about a seller taking 9 months to find a property on here a few days ago. I don’t think 3 months is too long but I would have liked to know. I’d definitely wait for the searches to come through

Good luck - hope it all works out. I guess in your shoes we might have done the same (my parents would probably have had us).

The first place DH and I tried to buy fell apart because it the vendor was this bonkers old lady who didn't want to look for a new place herself, she was insisting her selling agents find her somewhere, and she only wanted to look in the immediate area, even though the agents were actually based in another area (and it wasn't like there weren't loads of local agents she could have used!) and apparently she'd set a budget which might, at best, cover the tiniest retirement flat, but probably not in the local area.

We had about 2 weeks of considering sending her details of possible places ourselves and then she, in her first sane move, withdrew it from the market.

@Echobelly

Good luck - hope it all works out. I guess in your shoes we might have done the same (my parents would probably have had us).

The first place DH and I tried to buy fell apart because it the vendor was this bonkers old lady who didn't want to look for a new place herself, she was insisting her selling agents find her somewhere, and she only wanted to look in the immediate area, even though the agents were actually based in another area (and it wasn't like there weren't loads of local agents she could have used!) and apparently she'd set a budget which might, at best, cover the tiniest retirement flat, but probably not in the local area.

We had about 2 weeks of considering sending her details of possible places ourselves and then she, in her first sane move, withdrew it from the market.

Same sort of situation tho she has found somewhere now. I'm still seething about it 4 days later it's really annoyed me that we are made to wait when she had 3 months to find somewhere. Waited then still expects to wait months for searches on top of that! Like you hold up the chain you then move ASAP

3 months really isn't that long these days... but you really should have been made aware of the situation. Hard to know if it's your solicitor or your EA that didn't do their jobs properly though, unless they were lied to by the vendor about rental.

@surreygirl1987

3 months really isn't that long these days... but you really should have been made aware of the situation. Hard to know if it's your solicitor or your EA that didn't do their jobs properly though, unless they were lied to by the vendor about rental.

I think it's more the fact she now thinks it's acceptable to wait for searches and have a leisurely packing time. If we were in her shoes I would have coughed up the £90 for the indemnity, searched the planning portal myself and been packed in a week not 6!!!

Her solicitors hadn't even offered the indemnity until I forced the issue!

3 months really isn't long. Especially how the market is at the moment. a lot of the time you can't view houses unless yours is on the market or even under offer, and annoyingly there arnt many houses on the market to go see so I think the expectation is your expected to wait, I'd be annoyed I hadn't being kept informed though.

I get that you are frustrated - but it is probably more to do with the state of the market at the moment. Most agents won't let you view a property until you are under offer yourself - resulting in chains inevitably getting longer.
Also - I wouldn't want to get an indemnity policy unless it was for something that I considered pretty trivial. Otherwise you'd be stuck with a potentially unsaleable property. YANBU to be frustrated and to suggest that she moves into rented, but YABU to suggest buying a house only taking indemnity policys without the searches coming back.

I think you’re being unreasonable on the indemnity insurance. There’s no way I would proceed without the surveys.
I don’t think their to blame - you generally can’t view until you’re under offer at the moment and it can take a while to find something as there’s no my as much on the market and there’s lots of competition. I wouldn’t compromise on my new house just to speed things up.
But you should have been kept informed and that’s on the estate agent / your solicitors.

It’s not your solicitors job to manage this side of things. They should ask at the start what the position is and once the purchase legals are sufficiently progressed they’ll ask about agreeing exchange dates but there’s nothing they can do if the vendor’s solicitor isn’t responding.

@Idontgiveagriffindamn

I think you’re being unreasonable on the indemnity insurance. There’s no way I would proceed without the surveys. I don’t think their to blame - you generally can’t view until you’re under offer at the moment and it can take a while to find something as there’s no my as much on the market and there’s lots of competition. I wouldn’t compromise on my new house just to speed things up. But you should have been kept informed and that’s on the estate agent / your solicitors.

I think the markets a little different up here and you can view and offer without an offer on yours. I just feel like if your holding up the chain you move out and let the rest progress instead of holding up everyone else. We are moving out yet we can complete tomorrow she the one that can't so in my mind she should be the one moving out or taking the insurance.

I found our local search told us nothing that wasn't publicly available in this day and age. It's not like properly sales have stopped in areas where the cyber attacks have happened. We would happily have took the insurance.

3 months isnt that long at this time of year, the property market is notoriously slow from November to February. I get that you're frustrated but this is how housing chains work, and its kind of your fault for assuming they would go into rented without actually asking.

It's your choice to break the chain, and yes the searches and due diligence on their new property will take 6 weeks, the average property transaction takes 12 weeks, they can't make it go quicker just because you're waiting to move into their house!

Is the chain complete with their new property or are their vendors now looking for somewhere too? If they are you could be waiting much longer than another 12 weeks. Learn to ask these questions now so it doesn't take you by surprise further down the line

@Fleurty

3 months isnt that long at this time of year, the property market is notoriously slow from November to February. I get that you're frustrated but this is how housing chains work, and its kind of your fault for assuming they would go into rented without actually asking.

It's your choice to break the chain, and yes the searches and due diligence on their new property will take 6 weeks, the average property transaction takes 12 weeks, they can't make it go quicker just because you're waiting to move into their house!

Is the chain complete with their new property or are their vendors now looking for somewhere too? If they are you could be waiting much longer than another 12 weeks. Learn to ask these questions now so it doesn't take you by surprise further down the line

Nope it's a chain free property or we would have told them to keep the house. I honestly blame the solicitors the communication has been shocking and the vender doesn't have a clue. When we sold ours we knew if we didn't find somewhere that completed when we needed we would have to move out anyway, so I don't see why everyone in the chain isn't forced to do the same once sales are agreed. Can't believe our system lets one person hold up two others just for reassure on paper work.

It's also a renovation property we are buying so not like she will get another offer easily it was on the market for weeks before it sold.

It took us 6 months to move because our vendors vendors didn't bother to start looking for a house until we had our offer accepted. We all just waited. Tough for our buyers who were desperate to get out of rented but we all just waited. Of course we had no idea for the first couple of months that the vendors were "looking for the right house" but by then none of us wanted to pull out.

@bagelsandcheese

3 months really isn't long. Especially how the market is at the moment. a lot of the time you can't view houses unless yours is on the market or even under offer, and annoyingly there arnt many houses on the market to go see so I think the expectation is your expected to wait, I'd be annoyed I hadn't being kept informed though.

I'd agree with this. We're looking at moving house and we know that estate agents are not allowing viewings unless your own house is on the market (and some agents insist on your house being under offer).

How this is going to work for us, I have no idea... it took us around 9 months to find the right house (locations, budget) as first time buyers and I have no doubt we'll have similar issues (or worse) this time round. I don't want to compromise on the wrong house just because of pressure from a potential buyer, so I have to say I feel rather stressed even though we haven't even started the ball rolling!

3 months isn't that long. I wouldn't be rushing to pick any old house just because I didn't want to hold up the bottom of the chain.

Chains are slow.

I get that it's frustrating, but the onus is on you to ask these questions from the outset, not the solicitors. You should have asked the vendor what their position was before you offered.

It is utterly ridiculous to suggest that the vendor misses legal stages like searches and rushes their purchase to suit you. It isn't your house yet and they are under no obligation to move out to your timescales. If you don't like that then pull out of the purchase and find another house.

It is utterly ridiculous to suggest that the vendor misses legal stages like searches and rushes their purchase to suit you. It isn't your house yet and they are under no obligation to move out to your timescales. If you don't like that then pull out of the purchase and find another house.

This! Every word of this.

I think we are going to put it on the table tomorrow that she either:
Moves in with family or rented to wait for the searches.
Or
Takes the indemnity insurance and moves in three weeks time.
Or
We will pay the expediated search fee of £120 and she will have them in 48 hours.

I feel like she or her solicitor has been dishonest with the whole process this isn't the only issue she has caused that we have had to sort and the principle to us means more at this point. We won't pull out yet but won't be telling her solicitor that and will be implying we will be if she doesn't move. We will also be asking to exchange ASAP with a fixed completion date or money our way towards storage.

Feel like if we say oh okay we will wait for you darling she will take forever so hopefully that focuses her mind that we ain't waiting to make it easier.

If she decides moving to our time line isn't for her so be it but have a feeling if we play nice she will drag this on forever and would rather know that now rather than another month down the line.

This isn't the first time we've bought and sold every other time everyone in the chain has just got on with it ASAP. Both these houses are standard built in the last 20 years estate houses so it's not like her searches will turn up anything interesting. All she is waiting for is the planning and if the road has been adopted which is publicly available information.

Are you not aware that literally no-one on this thread has agreed with you?

You can't get indemnity insurance for skipping the entire legal process, no insurance companies would insure that.

You sound like the nightmare in this process, so much so that this now sounds like a fake post because I can't believe anyone could be this stupid and clueless.

You can’t get a viewing on a house until you’ve sold. You are then usually in a best and final.

It’s taken us nearly 3 months and we have spent the entire time viewing and bidding on properties.

Did you want her to buy something she didn’t want for the sake of you? Especially since she could probably resell easily if you dropped out.

Move in with your parents, be thankful that you can and stop being a brat. So glad your not my buyer!